Some of the translation process of creating an Australian version of You the Man involved just specific words. Other points of translation required considering what was meant, and how that might be best delivered idomatically. Case in point, when Officer Friendly says: Did you know that approximately 73% of all rapes are committed by friends, family members, and acquaintances? Apparently, it’s not that masked stranger in a dark alley that a woman has to fear as much as she has to fear the smiling faces around her. That’s a conversation stopper all right.

Constable Friend now says:That’s a barbeque stopper all right.

But the most extensive changes came when translating American sports culture to Australian sports culture. Basketball is equal opportunity in the US. Footy (Australian Rule Football) was the closest we could come. We wanted to examine the gender box, issues of loyalty, and what someone has to lose.

American Version: The Virgin Larry (Virg for short)

I tell ya, the way people talk about sex all the time, you’d think half the world was gettin’ it daily. In the movies, it’s like they kiss, and baddah-boom, you know, then, next instant, they’re doin’ it. Come on-it’s not like you can pick up a basketball and then be in the NBA. And people keep your score. Everyone’s waitin’ for you to kiss and tell. Now me, I was a late bloomer. Back in the day, I got the nickname The Virgin Larry … ‘Virg’ for short. Yeah, pretty funny, day in and day out, “Hey, Virg-great moves with the ball today … too bad you can’t score in bed like you score on the court.” And if gay-dar radar’s turned on you, well buckle up, buddy, ’cause it’s gonna be a bumpy ride. “Hey Virg-if I ever hear you shooting for the other team, you can kiss your sorry ass goodbye !” Nice. I got the first chick into bed that I could. It went well. No. Actually. Things were a little … premature. Hey, I mean that in several ways. They call that irony. Pretty funny. No it isn’t. You think it’s been easy having the nickname the Virgin Larry?

Aussie Version: The Virgin Barry (VB for short)

You’d think half the world was getting’ it daily. Movies, ads, the net – sex on tap. Easy. But it’s not like you can just pick up a ball and get drafted, I don’t reckon. They call me the Virgin Barry – VB for short. Great. Is it my fault I’m a kick behind the play? “Hey VB,” they say, “too bad you can’t score where it counts.” And if gay-dar radar is turned on you well it’s bums to the wall, mate. I got the first chick I could into bed. How’d it go? Well, no pressure right? Let’s just say I fumbled the ball. Lucky no-one around here keeps score.

In Australia footy is played in a club system–and correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems if every town’s got at least one club! The players are mostly older than Americans playing for the college systems, and playing has nothing to do with university, scholarships or feeding into the NBA draft system. The question was, what does VB have to lose by not taking action and being complicit in his friend’s atrocious actions of taping sex with a woman without her knowledge, and having sex without her consent, and, doing so after being asked to stop… a few times? In theatre, it’s the writer’s job to create the stakes, and they need to be high.

In the American version Virg stands to lose his scholarship and is looking at a possible expulsion–as are all of the others who were there. In the Aussie version, VB is looking at legal action being taken by the league’s lawyers.

GA: Well, that’s nice that there were consequences for the basketball player, but that’s pretty unrealistic.

LJE: Why is it unrealistic?

GA: Well, losing a scholarship? Expulsion? I work at [!!] and that would never ever happen.

LJE: Well, what would happen?

GA: I don’t know. Nothing.

LJE: Maybe what this play can do for us is not replay reality just as it is. Maybe it can help us ask, “what would happen at my university, and is that okay? Is it enough?”

It’s not the job of theatre to recreate reality, but to offer a reflection of reality. Standard principles of TO is in taking on reality and oppression, and then offering possibilities for alternatives, choices, and potential change.

I loved Lisa Jo’s question: What would happen, and are we okay with that?

Having written and directed plays for several years for activism with youth audiences, I know how challenging it is to pull together a cast. My plan was to follow the model I had work out with The Thin Line (a one woman 30 minute production on coping with eating disorders, 1999). One actor to pay, one actor to schedule.

Nearly every production, I recognized, would be presented to captive (not incarcerated, however) audiences for assemblies, orientations, awareness weeks. They would have been told the topic of the presentation, and they would be certain before they arrived in the auditorium (if they were lucky) or the gymnasium (very likely) that it would suck. In every audience there are victims and survivors, and I did not want to set them up for an hour of humiliation in which the topic could be ridiculed, diminished, or trivialized. The actor has a tall order—teens are not known for polite theatre behaviors, especially when sitting on bleachers or in the back of large auditoriums—and he has to “win” in 10 seconds or less. A task, I felt, best suited to a professional!

Professor Ann Taket and I gave 7 presentations together: Melbourne City Center (Deakin’s meeting rooms), Geelong, Warrnambool, Deakin’s Burwood Campus, Bendigo, Benalla and Traralgon. Ann’s presented at one other place and is scheduling a few other gatherings. Over 250 people in Victoria!

I asked Ann what was surprising to her in our process of these presentations, and she said that the level as well as volume of enthusiasm. So what is making “You the Man” so appealing?

1. the design. The play sits at the center of a process of not just educating but engaging a community. It’s goal is to put the local resources front and center, and, to make their job easier.

2. the message. Men are key bystanders and key agents of change in preventing interpersonal violence. The play is packed with info that has been vetted by advocates and educators.

3. the method. Theatre is an affect experience. It goes to the heart, makes the issues real, and brings by it’s nature both need and urgency.

Who is enthusiastic? All sorts of programs that are currently in the process of engaging men’s efforts in stopping violence against women: City Councils, Women’s Health, Salvation Army, Angelicare, Diversity and Inclusion, and more.